David L. Rose (born February 19, 1967) is a product designer and entrepreneur, and the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Clearwater AR.

Early life

Rose was born on February 19, 1967, in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...

when his father, James Rose, was in medical school. Rose graduated from Madison West High School in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

in 1985 and obtained a BA in Physics and Fine Arts from

St. Olaf College St. Olaf College is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American pastors and farmers led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus. The college is named after the King and the Patron Saint Olaf ...

in 1989. He then went on to earn his master's degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, focusing on technology in education, graduating in 1992.

Career

Rose founded the company Interactive Factory in 1992, following several years of working as a software engineer in speech recognition and robotics. Interactive Factory, now iFactory, a division of RDW Group, is a boutique design firm specializing in digital and interactive media. After Interactive Factory's acquisition in 1997, Rose patented the first online photo-sharing service and founded Opholio. The start-up was bought by Flashpoint Technology in 1998, and Rose went on to found Viant's Innovation Center, where he was director for four years. A

patent troll In international law and business, patent trolling or patent hoarding is a categorical or pejorative term applied to a person or company that attempts to enforce patent rights against accused infringers far beyond the patent's actual value or ...

company, named FotoMedia, ended up with Rose's online photo sharing patent. Rose criticized the company for "hoarding and non-operating of the technology", using the patent to threaten other companies instead. In 2002, Rose co-founded

Ambient Devices Ambient Devices, Inc. is a privately held company founded in 2001 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA that designs and markets various ambient devices for display of information ranging from weather to traffic reports to stock quotes. Th ...

, a spin-off from the MIT Media Lab and a pioneer in embedding Internet information in everyday objects. One of Rose's inventions was the Ambient Orb. The company went on to develop over a dozen internet-connected objects including: the Ambient Umbrella, the Ambient Dashboard, 5-day Weather Forecaster, and the Energy Joule. In 2008, Rose founded Vitality, a high-tech healthcare start-up where he conceived and led the development of the GlowCap, the first cellular-connected pill cap. The product was a recipient of the 2010 Medical Design Excellence Awards. Vitality was sold in 2011 to

biotech Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

investor Patrick Soon-Shiong and rolled into

NantHealth NantHealth is one of the constituent companies of NantWorks, which is controlled by Patrick Soon-Shiong. With headquarters in Morrisville, North Carolina, Morrisville, North Carolina, the firm is focused on developing and marketing a range of he ...

. Rose is the founder and CEO of Ditto Labs, a

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

-based start-up focused on image-recognition software. In July 2014, Rose published a book about The Internet of Things called ''Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things''. Rose argues that the cell phone monopolizes attention and that there is an opportunity to unglue society from these screens by spreading apps into every day objects like clothing, jewelry, and rooms. In 2017, Rose was a futurist at IDEO where he worked with a team to design and prototype

gesture A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or ot ...

-based interactions. He also developed computer vision technology for people to perform one and two-handed gestures to control light and sound in the environment. Rose filmed dancers,

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...

teachers,

mimes A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a theatrical medium ...

, and an orchestra conductor to learn about the communicative power of subtle gestures. Rose was the VP of Vision Technology at Warby Parker from 2017 to 2019. He has also been a lecturer at the MIT Media Lab, where he worked with the Tangible Media and City Science groups and taught a course called "Enchanted Architecture." In 2020, Rose co-founded ClearWater AR, where he serves as CEO. ClearWater AR developed the first

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...

experience for boaters and fishers with an App Store app that allows them to see water topography, buoys, dropping pins, safe tracks and more, along with a compatible set of glasses and an AR camera coming soon. Since 2021, Rose has also served as the Chief Technology Officer for Home Outside which uses aerial and street view data to automatically redesign residential landscapes to improve sustainability, home value, and curb appeal. By simply typing in a home address, Home Outside allows users to visualize and walk through your newly designed yard in 3D. Rose is also a Forbes contributor.

Personal life

Rose lives in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton, A ...

with his wife and two children.

References

External links

Enchanted Objects site

in Boston Business Journal
David Rose TEDx Talk

CEO and founder
at Ditto Labs
Gesture design futurist
at IDEO {{DEFAULTSORT:Rose, David L. 1967 births People from Chapel Hill, North Carolina St. Olaf College alumni Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni Living people MIT Media Lab people MIT School of Architecture and Planning faculty American scientists American technology chief executives Madison West High School alumni